London
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The backlash against ICE has grown beyond US borders.
Capgemini, a major French consulting and information technology company, said Sunday it will sell a US division that does business with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Like other businesses with links to ICE, Capgemini has come under scrutiny as criticism mounts over the agency’s heavy-handed enforcement tactics. Jim Pattison Developments, a real estate company, and Hootsuite, a social media company, are two Canadian businesses that have faced public pressure for their links to ICE.
Anti-ICE marches were held in several major US cities over the weekend in response to the Trump administration’s crackdown on undocumented immigrants, which has resulted in the fatal shootings of two US citizens by ICE agents in Minneapolis.
Capgemini’s decision follows revelations that the Department of Homeland Security had awarded the US division in question a $4.8 million contract in mid-December to provide ICE with “skip tracing services.” Skip tracing is the process of locating people who are difficult to find, using online information and other sources, such as voter registration data.
“The nature and scope of this work has raised questions compared to what we typically do as a business and technology firm,” Capgemini CEO Aiman Ezzat wrote in a LinkedIn post last week.
The decision to sell the US division comes after a Paris-based corporate watchdog, Multinationals Observatory, published details of the contract, prompting questions from France’s finance and economy minister Roland Lescure.
An archived Capgemini web page posted on the watchdog’s website states that Capgemini was working with ICE to “help it minimize the time required and cost incurred to remove all removable illegal aliens from the US.”
In a statement announcing the sale, Capgemini said legal restrictions associated with government work meant it was unable to “exercise appropriate control” over the US subsidiary’s operations to ensure it aligned with its objectives.
Capgemini said the unit represented 0.4% of the group’s global revenue in 2025 and less than 2% of its US revenue.
Meanwhile, Emily Lowan, the leader of the Green Party in British Columbia, has taken aim at Canadian billionaire Jim Pattison. Last week, she called on Canadians to boycott the businesses owned by the Jim Pattison Group, which include grocery chains, packaging firms and car dealerships among others, unless he “cut his ties” with ICE.
On Friday, Jim Pattison Developments, which is part of the Jim Pattison Group, said it would no longer proceed with plans to sell a warehouse in Ashland, Virginia, to the US Department of Homeland Security. It provided no further details. The company has not responded to CNN’s request for comment.
The industrial facility was to be used to “support ICE operations,” according to a letter last month from the Department of Homeland Security to officials in Virginia.
Hootsuite has faced demonstrations over the work it does with ICE’s public affairs office. Protestors gathered outside the company’s Vancouver headquarters on Friday, calling on it to stop doing business with ICE.
“Our use-case with ICE does not include tracking or surveillance of individuals using our tools,” Hootsuite CEO Irina Novoselsky said in a statement last week. “We understand this is a complex issue and that people will hold strong opinions.”
“What we are watching unfold right now is wrong,” she said. “The loss of life and the fear being felt in communities as a result of recent enforcement actions are devastating,”
American companies are also taking action to distance themselves from ICE. The owners of a property in Oklahoma City are “no longer engaged with the Department of Homeland Security about a potential acquisition or lease,” according to the city’s mayor David Holt.
“I commend the owners for their decision and thank them on behalf of the people of Oklahoma City,” Holt wrote on X last week.
Minnesota-based retailers Target and Best Buy called for a “de-escalation of tensions” last month.
